openclaw, open-source self-hosted ai assistant
About OpenClaw
Free, open-source personal AI assistant by Peter Steinberger that runs on your machine and performs real tasks autonomously. Talk to it from WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, Discord, Slack, or Signal. One-liner install, persistent local memory, ClawHub skills marketplace, sandbox or full system access, and support for Claude, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Qwen, or local LLMs via Ollama. 247K GitHub stars by March 2026; Steinberger joined OpenAI on February 14, 2026 with a non-profit foundation taking project stewardship.
Key Capabilities
One-liner install with full system or sandboxed access, runs on any hardware including old Mac Minis
20+ chat-app integrations: WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, iMessage, Signal, and more
Persistent memory stored as local Markdown, survives restarts and supports hot-reload editing
ClawHub skills marketplace plus self-writing agent skills for extensible automation
Model-agnostic: Claude, OpenAI, Qwen, DeepSeek, or fully local via Ollama for $0 API cost
Independent of any platform vendor; project stewardship via non-profit foundation since Steinberger joined OpenAI in Feb 2026
Standout Features
Local-First Privacy & Sandbox
Runs entirely on your hardware with optional Docker sandboxing. Data never leaves your device unless you choose a cloud LLM.
20+ Chat-App Integrations
Operates across WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, iMessage, Signal, and 15+ more platforms simultaneously.
ClawHub Skills & Self-Writing Agents
Community marketplace for agent skills, plus agents that write their own skills. From file management to browser automation to multi-agent swarms.
Perfect for
Compare OpenClaw
Community Buzz
Whats stopping you from building your solo startup? Coding - Claude, Code Editing - Cursor, Frontend - V0, Team - Openclaw. The entire solo founder stack is here.
Alibaba has just released a coding plan with all the best open source models. And you can plug it to Claude Code, OpenClaw, Codex, Cline.
This is one of the cheapest AI coding stacks I've seen. Alibaba Cloud just dropped a coding plan starting at $10/month. It already supports tools like Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, Cline, and more.
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